China is cutting back on solar and wind units due to their cost, the ballooning subsidies the state owes the solar and wind power builders, and the lack of grid-connected transmission capacity.
China Will Build Wind and Solar Only If Their Price Is Less Than Coal
China recently put the brakes on solar and wind energy, indicating that it will no longer approve wind and solar power projects unless they can compete with coal power prices. In late May 2018, China issued "2018 Solar PV Power Generation Notice," imposing caps on solar energy and reducing feed-in tariffs on those projects. More recently, China's National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration provided a series of conditions under which new solar and wind projects would be approved through the end of 2020. Conditions include that the price must match or undercut the national coal benchmark and that the projects must show that the grid can handle their output. In 2017, 12 percent of wind generation and 6 percent of solar generation was curtailed due to lack of transmission capacity.
